Mayhem about to start defense of their title in playoffs

A late-season surge by the Macon Mayhem was good enough for a second-place finish in the SPHL standings.

Now, the defense of last season’s President’s Cup Trophy begins for the Mayhem after the team selected Evansville as its opponent in the Challenge Round to open the postseason.

The SPHL’s Challenge Round allowed the top three teams in the standings to select their first-round playoff opponents from teams ranked fifth through eighth in the standings. The other Challenge Round matchups are Peoria against Roanoke, Mississippi verus Huntsville and Pensacola taking on Knoxville.

Game one of Macon’s best-of-three series is 8 p.m. Thursday at Evansville. The series then shifts back to the Macon Coliseum with Game two at 7:45 p.m. Saturday and a 4:30 p.m. Sunday if necessary.

Here are four things to know about the Mayhem’s first-round matchup:

Proven success against Evansville

Macon will have the advantage of confidence against the Thunderbolts. The Mayhem are 4-1-2 this season against them. Macon’s only regulation loss to Evansville, which finished sixth in the standings, was 4-2 on Nov. 9

Trask among league’s top scorers

Macon boasts the SPHL’s top scoring offense. A big reason for that is Jake Trask, whose 69 points closed out the regular season second in the league and his 27 goals being third-most. The Mayhem will need its scoring power to continue as they head into the postseason. John Siemer’s 52 points and 20 goals ranks second on the team in both categories, and the recently added Dylan Vander Esch has seven goals and nine assists in 12 games.

Goalie stability

It has taken some time and roster shuffling, but the Mayhem look to have finally gotten themselves some stability between the pipes. Charlie Finn is not only 4-1-2 in his past seven starts, but has given up more than two goals just once. His current backup, Peter Di Salvo, is 3-0 since being picked up by Macon on March 22, including a combined one goal allowed in his two most recent starts against Birmingham and Fayetteville.

Streaky opponent

The Thunderbolts may very well be the SPHL’s most inconsistent team. They ended the season with a 3-2 overtime win and a 3-2 overtime loss following a six-game losing streak. The stretch was preceded by a run of six wins in a row. Dave Williams leads Evansville in points with 53 points and is among the league’s top 10 with Dylan Clarke’s 23 goals also being among the SPHL’s ten top goal-scorers.

This story was originally published April 9, 2018 at 4:41 PM with the headline "Mayhem about to start defense of their title in playoffs."